I was into 'In Living Color,' 'Martin,' the 'Ace Ventura' movies. I love slapstick stuff, too: 'Naked Gun' and 'Caddyshack.'
There are a lot of people who came out of adverse situations and made it. Use it as motivation. Use it to drive you.
I went from being very athletic, one of the best guards in the NBA, to barely making it. No speed, no agility. I had to change how I played because I couldn't exercise or train because my knee constantly hurt.
The college kids are recruiting each other. When they go to a school, they start recruiting each other.
When Grant Hill came back to Orlando after having all of his surgeries, I was the first person to call him and congratulate him for making it back. It seemed like nobody cared about what I was dealing with.
I want to finish my career on a high note.
I have two people that I mainly look up to: Magic Johnson is one of them. He just blew everything out of the water. He didn't make much money in basketball, but since basketball has been over, he's investing in the community and making a lot of money at the same time. The next one I look up to is Sean Combs, who has always been a hustler.
I was as popular as you can be - All-NBA, Olympian. You couldn't get any higher than where I was.
I'm so appreciative of Orlando. I am Orlando. Orlando made me. So when people link my name, they link my name to Orlando and nowhere else. I'll always be indebted to Orlando for that and grateful at the same time.
I wore No. 25 in college, so naturally when I arrived in Orlando, I wanted that number, but Nick Anderson had it. I decided to go with No. 1 because of my name, Penny.
Orlando is my history.
It's a huge honor to be put in the Hall of Fame... it's even better because I played there for six years, and I left on bad terms. To be able to come back and be recognized - in hindsight, I wish I would have stayed, because everyone understands my career was large in Orlando.
A lot of the kids gave a lot of positive feedback about if I ever became a coach, they would love to play in our program. And I was very confident that we would be able to get the top-tier players to come in.
Mentally I was retired, and physically I was retired. I was playing recreational ball. But when the decision happened with Chris Bosh and LeBron, I felt like I could really be good in that system.
To be able to bring an entire city together is not easy, and we definitely have one thing in common in the city - that's the Tigers. The history of the school is well-noted around town. It is an SEC kind of country with all the SEC schools, but Memphis trumps all of that in the city. I embrace that.
If I had stayed there, swallowed my pride, been able to save Orlando all over again, which is what they were trying to get me to do there, I'd be O.K. now.
I didn't do it the traditional way of being an assistant first and then becoming a head coach.
I want to see the Memphis flags waving on the cars. I want to see the T-shirts going again, the hats going again like the old school days, and that's what we want to take it back to.
That's my job as a veteran in the league - to help make the young guys better.
It's amazing to see these young guys come into the league and want to wear my shoes.
